norin

ok so i have a 1994 Plymouth Colt (2 door Sedan/Coupe) and the dash lights, the tail lights, nor will the parking lights work. i have head lights tho (including hi-beams) and Brake lights work and so do the Reverse Lights. the car has over 180k miles on it. body is in great shape (not that it matters but i wanna provide as many details as i can). i checked/replaced the headlight fuse/relay switch under the hood. as instructed by local garage person. i also checked the fuse panel under the driver side dash and took each fuse out one by one, and put them back. i thought maybe the bulbs were bad in the tail lamps so i checked them but they are fine. i also purchased another fuse/relay switch for the tail lamp. that seemed to do the trick. so i hucked the old one. so a few days after that, my wife and i went to PetCo to see our little furry friends one nite, and we left and found i had no dash lights. so i go out and also saw i had no parking lights nor tail lights. (still have headlights [lo-beam and hi-beam] and brake lights and reverse lights). so we decided to scoot home so we wouldn't get into trouble with the law. on the way home i hit a bump and on come the dash lights. so i pulled over into a parking lot and got out and *HEY* i have tail lights, and parking lights :) so we went home, and my wife got out, turned off the car, and just to make sure i turned the lights back on, but no dash lights, no tail lights, no parking lights . so i figured since we hit a bump maybe the car had to be nudged a certain way for them to work. and then i thought well my wife closed the door, so perhaps that was the reason they didn't come on. so then my wife and i were temporarily restricted to day time driving (fine for us). so then one evening we were out and driving and then saw it was getting dark so we headed home, and in the same spot as before when i hit that bump, the lights came back on. (i'm not sure but i think it was just as dark outside at the time i hit that bump the first time, as it was outside when i hit it again the 2nd time).

so i also got to thinking, i'm not sure if the technology was available for cars then in 94, or even for the "low-end market/manufacturers", but i was thinking perhaps there is some sort of sensor that can tell when it is light and dark outside, and turns the lights on then. but then i got to thinking, if that's the case then why didn't the lights come back on when my wife closed the door, and i turned the lights back on after.

so i figured, perhaps it's a bad ground. all the fuses are looking ok, i checked the relay switches, a-ok to me. so again we were stuck to day time driving. and then one day it was a bit foggy/misty out so i turned on my headlights and went out and came back and hit that frikken bump again and ooo on comes the lights. ***! lol.

so (as usual i got to thinking ), maybe that's the miracle bump i need to hit so my lights will work...

I recently replaced the Alternator as it was frozen up, and replaced the Battery.

so i guess that's it for now, any ideas of what i could do would be appreciated. thanks :)

(sorry for the long post but i wanted to throw as much description as i could.)

crazijoe

Sounds like you have an intermitting electrical problem. This could be a bad or loose connection or even corroded terminals. I would start with the headlight switch. Pull the connector off and check the terminals.

norin

ok so i found the issue, and it has been resolved. the issue in my case was that it had been hiding under my fuse box under the hood, being a 94 i guess there is some wear and tear that goes along with the driving and what not of the car, so i guess what happened was that i blew one of my relay switches because of he corrosion on the wires underneath the fuse box. so replaced the wires and added a new relay and all is well now :)

thanks again.